Ethos.

Not all design is created equal.

A word about design.

Poor design can break a product. As tempting as it may be to pay peanuts, don’t. It may sound cliché, but you’ll get monkeys, every time.

Good design won’t break a product, but it won’t make a product, either. It’s usually competent and inoffensive. It will keep your brand tidy, might look kind of sharp, perform the perfunctory elements. There are plenty of good designers around, and plenty of people use them.

Great design can make a product.

What we mean by this is that great design has the power to influence. Think about that bad wine with a terrific label that people keep on buying. Why? Because great design can charge emotion. It seduces. It commands trust and incites a loyal stream of followers.

Great design is marvelled over, and admired as an art or even a vision for social change in its own right. It’s talked about, shared, appreciated.

There are very few that truly bring influential design thinking to the table. These designers are a rare breed; aspiring to create changed behaviours and market categories, rather than marching to the same beat as the masses.

A great designer can show you all the spectacular ways your business can speak to its audience, and expand your product’s potential into another stratosphere.

We know the visionaries understand how important influence is, which brings us to …

Why we exist.

We work with fellow founders—the like-minded visionaries who are as dedicated to their craft as we are.

We love founders because we understand how their brains tick. When we receive an email at 3am, we smile, because we recognise that drive. We feel the same sense of urgency with our business, too.

So to our fellow founders we say: click send. Shoot us that message as the sun comes up. Be brutal if you need to, to the point, don’t spare our feelings. Swear if you need to swear. We get there isn’t time for pleasantries when it’s dark outside (and we’re probably awake too, you know).

We don’t watch the clock in meetings either, because we don’t charge conversation by the hour. We welcome a chat anytime. The more we break bread with you, the more intimately we’ll know you. This just results in a better working relationship and outcome for us both.

Ultimately, we get it. This is your baby. These are your hard earned dollars. We never forget that, while bringing a new set of lenses to your life’s work. Fresh clarity, perspective and limitless opportunities is our job; that’s our baby.

We know how pivotal a trusted partner is, which brings us to …

Our culture.

Here are a few things you should understand about us if we join forces.

We never switch off. Our life’s work is one of our passions and part of our personal, as well as professional, journey.

We train relentlessly, everyday, in the knowledge that our field at the highest end is ever evolving. We will never stop getting better at what we do.

We will want to know everything about what you do. The what, the why, the how. We will pry and prod until you tell us to nick off. And once we have gleaned out of you an eon of details, we will think, think, think, explore, explore, explore and then think and explore even more. No stone is ever left unturned.

And then there’s …

Our willingness to move mountains.

We are committed to only working with a few clients each year.

We’ve been designing for nearly two decades, and, like most founders, we’ve made the mistake of overloading with too much work. Not anymore—we know our capacity and who we need to work with to get the best results.

So we stay intentionally small and specialised, knowing precisely how much time we are willing to devote to each mission. For us, the way we work, and who we work with, is vital to the outcome.

But enough about us, this is about your business. Which brings us to …

Why you might need us.

You may want to achieve a high price point for product. Perhaps it’s time to make your mark on a third generation business or reinvigorate a company that needs new life. Maybe you’re entering a crowded market and need to get noticed for the right reasons.

It’s vital this is done in the best possible way. If your brand does not reflect the true value of your product, or misrepresents its offering, your customers can end up confused or completely uninspired.

Our job is to clarify exactly what your brand needs. Then create, evolve or reinvent its presence, ensuring it hits the market with impact and fresh vigor.

This is about setting you up for the long haul, positioning you in the market in a way that is meaningfully different from, and superior to, your competitors.

We understand it’s daunting to go your own way—after all, it seems kind of safe to echo the most successful product on the market, right? But this is the time to be bold. If you are the same as everyone else, how can you stand out? And how can you expect to grow bigger and better than they are?

Still with us? We truly appreciate your …

Time.

A while back, we made a decision to kill the clock in our office. Instead, we decided to focus on ensuring a job was as good as it could possibly be, regardless of what the big hand said.

Besides, we love what we do and we never watched it anyway. There’s never been any skidding in at 9am or bailing out at 5pm; our days are never really done, because we live and breathe this work in every cell.

As founders, we understand that there are never enough hours in the day for anyone at the helm of a business. But we believe time formalities are often unfair to clients. We know a client cannot possibly get the best result if a designer is subject to time limits and pressures from a boss watching both the clock and the bottom line.

We may have killed our clock, but in some ways we’re more aware of time than ever before. In 2019, we’ll turn 20 years old. We can hardly believe it. We know the next 20 years are going to roar past and we want to devote our final blaze of glory to those who believe in the same visions of excellence and principles that we do. And, moreover, form more of those rewarding, long-lasting working relationships that we truly hold dear.